ROD OF GOD COMES TO BEING PEACE – Part 4
Rejected Son Returns as Judgment Rod to Bring Peace to Us!
February 8, 2009
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Psalm 2:7-9 – I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
[8] Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. [9] Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
Isaiah 11:1,4,15,16 – And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: [4] But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. [15] And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. [16] And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land
of Egypt.
Christ will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth. And one of the particular places he will destroy in so doing is the tongue of the Egyptian Sea. Another area of his smiting will be the great Euphrates River.
In Isaiah’s day the “tongue of the Egyptian Sea” is what we identify as the Gulf of Suez, a northern extension of the Red Sea that slithers like a serpent’s wet tongue between Egypt and the Sinai.
Since Isaiah’s time, man has dug out a northern extension of the “Egyptian Sea” to link the Mediterranean and Red Seas together.
The words “utterly destroy” come from the Hebrew word “charam,” which means “to be cut off” or “to shut up.” We are advised by God, through Isaiah, that he intends to completely shut up sections of the Gulf of Suez and the Suez Canal.
In Archive Prophecy Update Number 179A, the division of the Mount of Olives into two remaining halves was described, with one half being carried to the north on the extreme southern edge of a newly created Gaza Plate, while the other half drifted southward on the on the northern tip of a newly created Sinai Plate (See Archive Birth Pang Figure 33). In Figure 34 you may observe the consequences of the movement of the Sinai Plate as it floats southward on an underground sea of magma. As you can see, when the southward drift occurs, the Sinai Plate will be jammed against the massive African Plate. Dry land will crunch against dry land, and a northernmost part of the tongue of the Egyptian Sea will be completely “shut up.” (See Archive Birth Pang Figures 31 to 34). It may not be completely closed until the final great earthquake in Revelation.
Revelation 16:18-21 – And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the w
ine of the fierceness of his wrath. [20] And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
It will be possible to walk across this area on dry land throughout the millennial reign
of Christ. The nation of Israel may replace the Suez Canal as the link between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
It is possible that Mediterranean maritime shipping commerce will pass upstream to a point on the opposite side of the Mount of Olives from Jerusalem, and then proceed downstream to reach the Red Sea through the Arabah Desert. Of course, the reverse path would be taken by all maritime shipping passing via
the Red Sea to
the Mediterranean.
This would cause Israel to receive fees from all nations passing through their port on the eastern side of the river (See Archive Birth Pang Figure 47).
“The river,” Of Isaiah 11:15, has been disputed as to its identity by biblical expositors for centuries. At one time I was convinced that this particular river was the Nile of Egypt. I thought the “seven streams” were most certainly the seven streams of the great Nile Delta, and I was very persistent in this interpretation. I was well aware the expression “the river” was “hannahar, and that this was usually applied only to the Euphrates River.
However, because of the “seven streams,” I clung tenaciously to my belief it was the Nile. But, in my desire to make it the Nile, I had carelessly failed to examine
the Hebrew construction of the sentence action. When it said that the river should be smitten “in the seven streams,” the Hebrew does not mean it already existed as seven streams, and that God would smite seven streams already in existence. It states that God will smite a single river, and, when he performs that action, it will become seven streams because of the smiting. I now know that the single river, which will be divided into seven streams, is none other than the great Euphrates. The inspired Hebrew text phrase, in order to understand its meaning, should be read “and shall smite it into seven streams.” This action will occur at the same time, and is a part of, the action whereby God dries up the Euphrates south of the Palmyra folds and faults.
Revelation 16:12 – And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
We were advised in Isaiah 11:16, that this “drying up” of the Euphrates creates a situation such that it will be possible for the millennial return of tribulation Israelites from the area east of the present Euphrates, and that this return would no longer be hampered by having to boat across the Euphrates. The latter portion of this verse also indicates that such a highway will also extend into Egypt. The “Israel” of verse 16 represents the descendents of the man Jacob, hence the personal pronoun “he” is used, even though it refers to an entire nation that came from Jacob’s loins. When the nation of Israel “came up out of the land of Egypt,” God parted the waters of the extreme northern extension of the Red Sea, the extension that was called “the tongue of the Egyptian Sea in Isaiah’s day, but which is identified as the Gulf of Suez today. On the day Israel crossed this “yam cuwph” extension of the Red Sea, while fleeing from the Egyptian Pharaoh, it could be said God had created a highway of dry land from Egypt to Assyria. But God closed that dry land pathway to destroy the Pharaoh’s mighty army with a flood of closing walls of water. However, the dry land passage of Isaiah will be a permanent thing, because of the drying up of the Euphrates and the shutting up of the Suez Canal, thereby making it possible to move all the way from the huge African Continent to the European, Eurasian, or Asian continents, without having to pass over any ocean or sea. A God made, sea free, highway will be created that will last a thousand years. Throughout the millennial reign these continents will remain fused by God’s power. And, throughout the reign of Christ, the nations of these massive continents will move up and down the dry land linkage to worship Christ in the city of Jerusalem, the new capital of the world. The commerce of Africa will flow through Israel to Asia and Eurasia, and the commerce of Asia and Eurasia will flow between themselves and into Africa. Israel will sit at the crossroads of the world’s sea and land commerce. Jerusalem will be the center of the world.
Isaiah 19:23-25 – In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into
Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. [24] In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: [25] Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.
And all the nations of the world will come by land, air, and sea to keep the annual Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.
Zechariah 14:9,16 – And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. [16] And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Ezekiel 39:21-22, 27-29 – And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. [22] So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward. [27] When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; [28] Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. [29] Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.
Earlier this Update, I discussed how God would smite the Euphrates River and, as a result of that smiting, it would be separated into seven streams. Now, I will deal as to where that smiting by God will probably take place (See Archive Birth Pang Figures 29 and 35). God has created a long zone of structural weakness in the crust of the earth from the northern headwaters of the Jordan River northeastward to the mighty Euphrates River. It extends from the Sea of Galilee area across Syria to near El Rashid on the Euphrates River, and consists of an elongated zone of major faults and folds in the in the earth’s crust, known as the Palmyra Belt.
Please note on Archive Birth Pang Figures 35 and 36 how it links the Jordan and Euphrates Rivers together.
The Euphrates is one of the greatest carriers of top water silt on the face of the earth. It tears the topsoil from Turkish mountainsides and then carries it through the Fertile Crescent of Syria and Iraq into the Persian Gulf. The land delta of the Persian Gulf is the fastest growing delta on the earth. This growth is produced by massive influxes of silt carried into the Persian Gulf by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Isaiah indicates that God will smite the Euphrates, causing it to divide into seven streamlets in the area where he strikes it. The striking will occur in the zone on the Euphrates in the vicinity of El Rashid, Syria, and cause its waters to be redirected southwestward into extreme northern Israel near Dan and the Springs of Banias. When the Arabah Fault is ripped open from the Gult of Aqabah to Lebanon, the resultant fantastic shaking of the earth, will cause the Palmyra Fault Zone to collapse, and the Euphrates River will be diverted southwest across the crumbled zone of rock and earth to link with the northern headwaters of the Jordan River.
Whenever any sediment carrying river moves into a zone with more sediment than it can carry, it invariably produces what geologists call “a braided river.” A braided river is the division of a single river into several streams.
Isaiah counted seven after the Euphrates smiting. The seven streamlets will weave their way through the newly formed cracks in the crust along the northern fringe of the Palmyra Belt, eventually to feed into the northern headwaters of the Jordan River. It will be what geologists refer to as “headwater piracy.” In this case the Jordan River will have acted as the pirate to steal the waters of the Euphrates into its own headwaters. This tremendous increase will not only triple Israel’s current volume of water, but will also give it more topsoil for land crops than it can use during its Messiah’s millennial reign. Israel will be transformed into the breadbasket of the world.
We are advised by John, in Revelation 16:12, as to the effects of this massive water division in
to the upper Jordan. The current riverbed south of El Rashid will go dry. It will then be possible for the kings of the east to pass unhampered across shallow streamlets on the way to Jerusalem to worship King Messiah.